2014 Whistler Deep Winter Photo Challenge

Thew 8th annual Arc’Teryx Deep Winter Photo Challenge at Whistler/Blackcomb, BC, Canada presented by Gore-Tex went down last week. The deal? Create, capture, document a way of life in Whistler under the given conditions and time contraints. Six photographers have 72 hours to shoot inbounds (no permanently closed areas) during operating hours (not at night on hill) and on the fourth day they show their slideshows in front of a sold-out room at the Fairmont Whistler.

Chris Brown’s vid. Browner sought to show the lives of two boys, Jadyn (11) and Caleb (9) that anticipate going to ride from inside of their classroom. When they get to the mountain they meet up with some of the top snowboard pros of Whistler (Kale Stephens, Iikka Backstrom, Devun Walsh, and Jody Wachniak) and have the session of their lives. “Although we didn’t win or even podium for that matter it was a great experience and I want to thank you for watching” Says Chris.

“Deep Winter is such a crazy, intense and awesome event.” Says Erin Hogue, who worked with Colin D Watt, Marie-France Roy, Eric Poulin, Britany Davis and Braden Dean. Check out her video. “I had Wiley Tesseo, Joel Loverin, Justin lamoureux and a skier Phil Nicoll, as the only way you even have a chance of winning is to have a skier on the team. We didn’t place, but then again not one of the three snowboard photographers did. Three ski photogs won, much to a lot of peoples disbelief…” Says Cameron Hunte. The event ended Saturday, January 18th, with a big screening of the slideshows where the judges announced the winner, along with people’s choice, too. With $5,000 for first, $2,500 for second, $1,000 for third and a People’s Choice $1,000 heli bundget up for grabs it’s no joke.

Zoya Lynch’s winning video.

Revelstoke’s Zoya Lynch speaks with pictures not words as she told a story about the relationship between Whistler’s most inspiring fine artists and the mountains they love in her show, “Winter Canvas”. Lynch’s unique show juxtaposed the process of artists Vanessa Stark, Vincent Massey and Kris “KUPS” Kupsky finding inspiration while snowboarding on Whistler Blackcomb and then harnessing that inspiration creatively in the studio. The judges remarked her show was clean, and found it to be the most creative, cohesive and original in the theme. The judges deemed Lynch’s photo slideshow, shot over three days on Whistler Blackcomb, the best of the night, and awarded her $5,000. Nicolas Teichrob, in second place, took home $2,500; and Jason Hummel came in third with $1,000.